Is no-one else a little dissapointed there's nothing new as far as the Overlay Creator Panel goes in InDesign? I realise javascript transitions are still in their infancy, but I was kind of hoping for further options with controlling object states and transitions.

Coming over from the Flash world, or even just the array of options that InDesign offers in the way of Flash presets, I feel there's a lack of this for .folio files.

I've been experimenting with Wallaby for a while, the massive work around to replicate a simply Flash transition is still to clunky. Even with the cleanest Flash files built from scratch (we're talking a single tween) it still throws out too many errors, but thats not my problem. The fact you can't even preview your then exported transition in the Desktop Viewer is just poor. Any good reason why this isn't possible, because having to go through the iPad Content Viewer every time is making for the longest workflow imaginable.

I suppose I should learn more about CSS3/Javascript, but I thought the point of this was what you can do inside of InDesign, without having to go InDesign > Flash > Wallaby > Opening CSS files > InDesign > Adobe DPS > iPad to make a simple animation?

Overlay Creator is separate from InDesign and releases on its own cycle, roughly every six weeks. We haven't announced anything about what would be in our next release, beyond being able to create folios from CS6 files. I'll let you know now though that the animation support you're asking about won't be there

The best way to get animations in a DPS publication is to use HTML5. The Adobe Edge Preview (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/) is a good way to author the animations without having to learn CSS3/Javascript, and you can use that generated HTML inside a web overlay in your folio. These can generally be previewed using the desktop content viewer as well.

If you are serious about animations for your folios I recommend investing time in getting familiar with HTML5, Javascript, and Edge.

You're right, I should really just spend some time and learn java. A world apart from being a frontend web designer/graphic designer unfortunately. I'll start using Edge on that reccomendation though, as a year ago I didn't know Flash at all, and now feel quite proficient in that area. How hard can it be right?

I didn't realise the Overlay Creator had its own release cycle, so I'll look out for that.

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Oh one more thing. Would it be sensible to export more complex Flash creations as a .mov, do whatever conversions neccesary and overlay a video in place? I can see this working, but its so counter intuitive to making web sized animations having to run everything as a movie.

I'm not convinced you'll need to go and learn a ton of JavaScript, as applications like Edge provide a reasonable UI experience that helps create the animations. Also, ActionScript and JavaScript are extremely similar so any script programming skills you've picked up from your Flash days should help you get up to speed on the HTML5 side of things.

As long as your animations are just animations and don't expect interactivity from the user then yes, you could export as a video and then use that in a video overlay. The tradeoff is file size, as videos are quite a bit larger than EDGE animations.

@Neil – How about using the upcoming Flash CS6 for animation works and then exporting from Flash CS6 to HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript ?If I remember it right this workflow was mentioned at the launch event of CS6.

I've been in the DTP, Multimedia, Web, and ADPS world for 25 years now, and I've never felt the urge to dig into 'coding' with ActionScript and/or JavaScript. (First tip: don't confuse it with "Java", that's a different beast). After a good dose of PostScript, HyperCard scripts and Director Lingo, I was fed up with syntaxes. I understand what scripts can and do, and I can grasp the intentions of a block of script, but I never typed a single line of JavaScript or CSS code from the top of my head. So if you're only vaguely familiar with ActionScript, you're ahead of me and can neglect my advice.

Here's the advice: to animate stuff, stick to the new kid Adobe Edge or (at a complexer scale) Widgets in Dreamweaver. Let them whip up the proper code for you, and integrate this into InDesign by assigning their HTML to the complete articles or boxes in pages.

My guess is that InDesign will not pick up animation from within the application itself, because if Adobe would only implement just 2 or 3 animation features, they will end up getting tons of other wish lists for more animation features. So they rather keep InDesign 'open' to let animations be wheeled in through other tools. Just like we hardly see any Photoshop-like features appearing in InDesign, animations will also remain an 'outside' job.

Thought I'd let this stew for a day while I checked out Edge. Bear in mind I juggle lots of different projects on a daily basis, but manged to get to grips with it immediately. Timeline, keyframes, eases, scenes… its just like Flash. Wow! Only in a more friendly and modern Adobe interface (I always felt like Flash was stuck with some Macromedia mentality).

Very impressed with this on the surface. I've no idea what kidn of code it kicks out, and I don't care, as far as components to websites or using in conjunction with DPS this is great. I suppose our developer could always tidy up the script if need be. Very much looking forward to full release.

Quick question though

This expires in 35 days. Is it refering to my particular install or is this is message saying all copies of Edge? I just couldn't figure out if this means I won't be able to continue testing it, or everyone won't?

@Peter

I agree, this kind of thing probably should be kept out of InDesign, as its print programme at heart. Being able to edit text and produce layouts quickly is my main concern, anything the slows it down isn't helpful in my eye. I'd say there is a fair bit of Photoshop influence in there no though, layer styles have a lot to be thankful for.

Glad you liked what you saw at first glance! I believe the expiry is for all copies of Edge, since it is a preview. Presumably the Edge team will have another version available before then, although I don't know what their exact plans are.

One gotcha to watch out for: when you add the Edge content into your DPS publication via the web overlay, if you turn on "auto-play" in the overlay panel make sure you also set the delay to 0.125 seconds. This will ensure your animated content won't start running until the reader brings the page with your overlay on it into view.

Thank you for the kind words about Adobe Edge. To answer your question, Edge is currently in preview mode and we will release more previews before we release Edge 1.0.

We are currently at Preview 5. We will release Preview 6 before the 35 days run out and it would be a free product while in preview.

You will be able to download it from creative cloud (when that releases) or from labs.adobe.com.

Specifically for DPS we are planning an export to DPS option which would allow you to easily package your Edge animation so that it can be imported into DPS. Keep a look out for the next preview. Thank you.

Thanks, it is great! There's just one thing its missing that I'm quite used to. I'm sure you're aware of this though.

Its good to be able to select PSDs and AI files that are specifically setup in layers so when you brought them into Flash, everything was in the right place and lots of Movie Clips could be made without having to drag to the stage and realign everything. Its ok bringing in PNGs, but you kind of have to align everything again either by eye or the align tools. Not always ideal if you don't want things edge to edge.

@WhiteLightMedia333 - That is definitely one of the features on our list of things to do. We are trying to figure out how we can do this without balooning our install size an/or startup time. But we hear you loud and clear